Page 32

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

S olarius took his time strolling through the corridors of House Celestine on his way to Ariesian’s office.

After last night’s interruption, he wasn’t too keen on meeting with his eldest brother.

Besides, his mind was still wrapped around the best blow job of his life, and it baffled him how Narissa hadn’t any need for air.

It also left him curious to see what else she was capable of doing with her tidal magic.

His mind drifted to her asleep in his bed, curled up under a moondust blanket, her golden waves sprawled across his pillow.

He liked the way he caught peeks of sun-kissed skin whenever she rolled from one side to the other.

A glimpse of her shoulder.

A slip of her thigh.

The tiny braided gold band on her toe.

Just thinking about the unintentional teases of flesh was enough to make his cock twitch.

Unfortunately, walking into his brother’s office blatantly aroused was probably not the best idea.

He needed to clear his mind, to think of anything else other than his wife’s perfect body.

Something boring or mundane.

Something absurd.

Like spelling each of his siblings’ names backward from youngest to oldest.

N-Y-L-S-E-R-C.

N-A-I-L-E-A-C.

He was about to recite Nyxian’s name next when someone called out to him.

“Solarius, darling.” His mother’s overly saccharine voice caused his blood to curdle.

“I’m so glad I found you.”

He stilled, shoved his hands into his pockets, and slowly faced her.

Trysta’s dull white hair was twisted into a braid, complete with ornate star charms and threads of gold.

The silver dress she wore looked more ill-fitting than normal—it was as though she’d taken a heavily beaded curtain and fashioned it into something suitable to wear.

There were too many layers and the angles were sharp, jutting from her shoulders and hips like daggers.

The skin beneath her observant eyes had taken on a grayish hue, and the lines creasing along her forehead and the corners of her mouth had deepened in recent weeks.

Where once they were faint, they now resembled craters.

Still, she stalked toward him like she was on a mission, her elaborate bangles jingling on her wrists.

“Mother.” Solarius inclined his head in greeting.

She did not return the gesture.

“Walk with me.” Trysta hooked her hand in the crook of his arm.

“I’m actually—” Solarius began, but she waved one hand through the air, cutting him off.

Like always.

“Your brother can wait,” she sniped, plastering a counterfeit smile to her face, one Solarius had come to recognize over the years.

“I wanted to speak with you about your lovely new bride.”

At once, Solarius raised his guard.

The hairs along the back of his neck stood on end and his jaw popped.

Whatever business his mother had with Narissa, he planned on putting a stop to it.

Nothing good could come of Trysta taking a vested interest in his wife, his marriage, or his life in general.

She’d never made an effort before, and any concern she showed now was a warning.

“What about Narissa?” he asked, his voice cool and measured.

“To start, you two complement each other so well.”

Her flattery was wasted on him, and he remained silent.

Solarius did not want nor need her blessing.

Or her opinion, for that matter.

“I had no idea Narissa was so adept with herbs and such.” The heels of her shoes clicked noisily against the glittering tiled floor, and she peered over at him, eyes glinting with intrigue.

“It’s quite a novel skill to have, don’t you think?”

Solarius ground his teeth, his hand in his pocket closing into a tight fist.

He wasn’t certain what exactly Trysta was getting at, or why she was even bothering to strike up a conversation with him.

She never made small talk, and the only time she approached anyone of worth was when she wanted something in return.

“Indeed.” He intended to keep his answers curt, to not give her anything.

Trysta prattled on, oblivious to his contempt.

“I fear my age is catching up with me,” she continued, though she was hardly what any fae would consider old.

“I’ve been in the market for a lightening cream for my skin, or perhaps something to assist with the tension lines around my eyes. Honestly, bearing and raising children has been no easy feat.”

Her words set his teeth on edge.

She hardly had a hand in the upbringing of himself and his siblings.

She was scarcely around unless it was to patronize one of them or remind them of their disappointments and failures.

“What is it you’re after, Mother?” he asked, cutting through her tedious bullshit.

“Do you suppose she could make something for me?”

Typical.

His patience snapped and his temper flared, funneling through him in a burst of white-hot rage.

Of course, she would only see Narissa as something she could use for her own needs and then discard.

“Like what?” he spat, wrenching himself away from her.

He glared at the woman he couldn’t possibly believe shared even an ounce of his blood.

“Some dragon root, perhaps?”

Trysta’s gaze sharpened, the skin between her brows puckering.

“That’s right, Mother. I know all about how you traded dragon root to Lord Calfair Skyhelm for some kind of concentrate. Or whatever it was you so desperately needed.” His fury expanded, spurred by her ignorance.

Her lack of care.

Her complete and utter disdain for anyone save herself.

Namely, his wife.

“Do you have any idea what he did with that?”

Her dry lips opened and closed, but she remained silent.

“Calfair drugged Narissa while masquerading as me.” Solarius took a menacing step toward her, encroaching on her space.

Her eyes widened in shock, but she didn’t step back from him.

When he spoke again, he kept his voice low, a testament to his seething rage.

“He pretended to be me while I was courting her, and then he deceived her and stole her honor.”

There was a flicker of something in Trysta’s eyes, but it was gone before he could decipher it.

“Solarius. I had no idea.”

“Stay away from my wife,” he warned.

“If you so much as look at her, I’ll?—”

“You’ll what ?” Trysta countered, baring her teeth, morphing into the monster she hid beneath a veneer of excess and opulence.

There was the female he didn’t trust, the one who couldn’t possibly be his mother.

Power boiled to the surface, and his magic simmered in his blood.

“I will make you regret it for the rest of your days.”

She scoffed, a vicious sneer tugging at the corners of her mouth.

“I’d like to see you try.”

It was the only caustic remark he needed, the one he’d been waiting for without even knowing.

The opening he craved to release the dormant power of his bloodline.

Solarius unleashed the potent strength of the lunarstorm.

Beams of violent moonlight exploded around him in a sphere of stellar energy.

Shards of moon-dipped silver forged by the night ripped from the tips of his fingers as the air circulated in a violent frenzy.

His blood churned, magic funneling from him like a maelstrom of archaic force.

For generations, the magical starstorm coursing through his blood and that of his siblings had been thought to be extinct.

But instead it was lying in wait, morphing, changing with each of them, revealing the truth of its greatness—a storm of celestial awakening.

“You are a poison to this family. You bleed us from the inside, you drain our soul with your lies. With your bullshit star readings and toxic nature.” Solarius’s chest expanded on a breath, his power building so the frosted windowpanes rattled and the ground beneath his feet quaked.

“You lied about the starstorm and the truth of our bloodline. You lied about everything .”

He stretched one arm back, ready to strike his mother down.

Something heavy and solid rocked him off his feet, slamming him into the nearest wall.

“Not like this.” Ariesian’s calm, controlled voice cut through the fog of fury clouding Solarius’s mind.

His brother’s steel eyes bore into his own.

“Not. Like. This.”

“Her very existence is a plague,” Solarius spat, glaring at Trysta from behind Ariesian’s broad frame.

There was something unnatural about the way she stared at him, like she was seeing past him, her eyes glazed with distance.

She didn’t look in fear of her life, she wasn’t visibly shaken by his outburst, or angry beyond measure at the insults he hurled her direction.

Instead, there was an eerie sort of tranquility about her expression, like she’d expected his reaction, like she’d been prepared for it.

Prepared to fight back.

“Be that as it may.” Ariesian spoke in clipped, measured words.

He released the lapel of Solarius’s coat and stepped back, flicking his wrists in annoyance.

“The stars define our fate. Not ourselves.”

“Yes,” Solarius muttered, shoving his hands into the pockets of his pants to quell the urge to strangle his mother.

“But even the stars keep secrets.”

Ariesian said nothing.

He turned slowly, quietly, and faced Trysta.

Her sharp gaze slashed across them like a hot blade.

Ariesian rolled his shoulders back, his chin lifting to an angle of distinction.

When met head-on with the silent command of her eldest son, the Lord Starstorm Celestine, Trysta shriveled like a rotten berry, shrinking into herself before spinning on one heel, and stalking off in the opposite direction.

“Come with me.” Ariesian led the way to his office, his pace quick, each click of his boots made with cold precision.

Solarius knew the way to his brother’s office like the back of his hand, could find his way blindfolded in the dark.

Yet the air thickening in the decadent halls of House Celestine was different now.

It was charged with restless energy.

With trepidation.

Ariesian shoved open the door, stepped aside to allow Solarius entry, then closed it behind them, twisting the lock into place.

The moment the lock clicked, Ariesian’s wall of carefully built composure cracked and crumbled.

He shoved both of his hands through his silver hair, mussing the perfectly coiffed style.

He stormed over toward a cupboard along the far wall, grabbing two crystal glasses and a decanter of spiced whiskey.

“She must be hiding something.” Ariesian poured three fingers’ worth of the golden liquid and offered Solarius the drink.

“I need a clear head.” Solarius waved him off, not wanting to indulge in anything that could prevent him from protecting Narissa.

“What do you suppose she’s hiding?”

“I wish I knew.” Ariesian knocked back the alcohol in one gulp, then stared at the empty glass as though debating whether to refill it.

He twirled it between his fingers, dropping into the chair behind his desk.

“Distractions are popping up everywhere. Things meant to deter me from meddling with her doings. Intentional slips of information mean to divert my attention away from her dealings with Prince Aspen and Queen Elowyn.”

Solarius rubbed the ache forming at his temples.

Leave it to Trysta to misguide and mislead.

She was literally quite good at nothing else in her miserable life save for fabricating truths and embellishing lies.

“What sorts of distractions?” Solarius asked, pressing his thumb between pinched brows.

Ariesian leaned back, the chair groaning beneath his weight, and gestured vaguely through the air.

“The sudden demand to force Nyxian into a marriage with Lady Aria Skyhelm. The relative quiet we’ve experienced to give us some hope for peace. Oh, and then there was the sly mention of a witch queen.”

Solarius’s brows shot up, his headache suddenly forgotten.

“I beg your pardon, did you say a witch queen?”

“Exactly that.” Ariesian clicked his tongue in annoyance.

“Apparently some witch proclaimed herself queen in Brackroth. As of now, she poses no threat to Aeramere, but I sent Creslyn and Drake to investigate, just in case.”

“Creslyn,” Solarius repeated, his tongue thick.

“You sent our baby sister to go investigate some witch queen’s rise to power?”

Ariesian rolled his eyes to the exposed beams of the ceiling.

“In case you’ve forgotten, our sister is perfectly capable of handling herself against witches and bastard rulers alike. Not to mention the fact that she now has a dragon and is married to a god .”

He hated to admit that Ariesian was right.

But out of all of them, Creslyn was the only one who’d taken a life—multiple if memory served him—and was quite possibly the most fearsome of all the siblings.

At least Solarius would think twice before crossing his youngest sister.

“Right.” He huffed out a breath, his thoughts spiraling.

“So, the real question becomes, how do we uncover whatever secrets Mother is keeping?”

Ariesian set the empty glass on his desk and when he looked up, the silver of his eyes had hardened, reminiscent of cold iron.

When he spoke, his voice was a low rumble, like distant thunder.

“We pry them from her through any means necessary.”

Solarius nodded in solemn agreement.

He would gladly go to any lengths to protect his siblings and, now, Narissa.

He would walk through fire, take a blade through the heart, give his life for theirs over and over if it meant they were safe.

For him, it would always be family above all else.

Blood above all else.

And when that blood was poisoned, it was time to cut the vein.